Test

Plug that Tunnel

Time for some unashamed self-promotion: here’s a link to a studio project that I’ve been working on with Ed James aka Corrugated Tunnel this year -  so with a great deal of imaginaton, we’ve decided to call it Test Tunnel! These are the first tracks, and so far the feedback has been pretty good. Anyway, if you are bored or just want to hear some new music, check these two numbers out. Any feedback, good, bad or indifferent is greatly appreciated!

Poles apart

I’m amazed that more people aren’t (literally) raving about Jacek Sienkiewicz. His name mightn’t trip off the tongue as easily as Troy Pierce or Loco Dice, but his music is inspirational. Last year’s ‘Untitled’ (great name!) on his own Recognition imprint was one of my favourites (and one of Roman Flugel’s), a huge track that united a Villalobos-esque approach to lurching, freeform rhythm invention with fathomic, dubby beats and a dramatic, Carl Craig-like chord build. Maybe his sense of geographical detachment  - he’s from Poland - means that it’s easier for him to pick and choose his influences, bring them together and present them in an unbiased way, or maybe he’s just a naturally talented producer. Jacek has also released on Cocoon, and it surprises me that because of this connection he doesn’t gig more all over Europe. Maybe his new release, 'Mirrors' , (on Intergroove’s second ‘hotshit of the week’ page  - I don’t want to MP3 it) will finally provide the break through he deserves. Sienkiewicz is slow to release material –which is a good thing in my book - and it sounds like he has thrown pretty much everything in his arsenal into this release. Like ‘Untitled’, it’s another hybrid affair: using heavy, dubby beats as its base, it employs mysterious chords, jazzy keys and a building arrangement that peaks with some lovely woodwind flourishes. It’s one of the most distinctive techno records I’ve heard in a while and hopefully this time, the world will listen in and he’ll become ridiculously famous…

Jak to the future

If I had one, I’d take my hat off to DJ TLR’s Crème Organization label. Its decision to launch a vinyl only sublabel, Crème Jak, is a brave move: each release is one-sided, limited to 200 copies, and the subject matter is both old school and refreshing – attributes that do not always sit well together. Jak is dedicated to the sick sound of the 303 and the wild approach of Chicago’s original house producers. Listening to the label’s first release, ‘Take Em Off’ by JTC, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you had stepped back in time to some southside all day, all night warehouse party: the shuffling drums sound rough and swampy and are kept low in the mix, leaving the author the opportunity to torture and tweak the hell out of his 303 (or whatever simulator he has chosen). However, the concession to modern techno/house comes as the percussion morphs into a wall of building noise. ‘Off’ is not some nugget from the birthplace of house (and, lest we forget, techno as well), but is in fact the work of James T Cotton, who usually releases for Spectral/Ghostly. However, the format in which this jam is presented takes a considerable step back in time. It’s probably a reaction against the always-available digitisation of electronic music and a desire to once again make house/techno anonymous, not easily attainable and therefore mysterious and enigmatic, but whatever about the motives, Jak’s debut is as real (and I use that term with some trepidation) as electronic music gets…

Hell's Bells

The internet’s great, isn’t it? You can download free music and erm, ‘other stuff’ to amuse yourself with, and it has become the place to go to start rumours and bitch (actually, has anyone noticed how much bitchier people are online than in ‘real life’? A lot of those who come across as almighty mouths on the net are really just shy, retiring types). I don’t believe a lot of what I read online - hey, sometimes I even doubt the veracity of what gets posted here!  - but while most of the hearsay and gossip is funny, there is a serious side and consequences to making inflammatory comments online. There has been a nasty little rumour circulating that Robert Armani - that’s right, the guy who wrote ‘Circus Bells’  - passed away the other day. You know the way these stories get passed around the net (‘virally’ I believe is the cynical marketing term), but Armani’s apparent demise stems from the fact that some randomer posted on his MySpace site  that Armani had bought the farm. It turns out that he had just announced that he was going to give up DJing, but someone put two and two together and got nine. A cynic would argue that news of Armani’s supposed demise got him the most attention he’s enjoyed in years, but we’re not that hard-bitten here and to the gossip fiends, we’d say: yes, bitch and give out about your idols all you want, but don’t make up stories that they’ve died -  that’s taking the combination of techno obsession and internet rumour-mongering a bit too far…